


changes

by motherherbivore (Airheart)



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Established Relationship, Medical Procedures, Sharing a Body, Symbiotic Relationship, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 18:02:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17027454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airheart/pseuds/motherherbivore
Summary: Venom doesn't like change, doesn't like being away from Eddie, but it's not for long and it's for the best this time.





	changes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rayguntomyhead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rayguntomyhead/gifts).



> I took a bit of a risk with this but, hope you enjoy it!
> 
> (also a shoutout to my friends who let me ask some personal questions about their surgeries--you guys know who you are and i love you!!)

**You should take me with you.**

“Stop asking.”

**Don’t like being apart.**

“I know.” Eddie reached for his pullover, then grumbled and picked up his windbreaker instead. “But I can’t take you into surgery. You’d fuck it up.”

Venom swirled in Eddie’s skin.

 **That’s mean,** it said.

“No, that’s true,” said Eddie.

Disgruntled, Venom settled heavily in Eddie’s chest, behind the masses of soft tissues that he was abandoning Venom to have removed. They were soft, full of nutrients, and Venom rather liked them, but it looked at Eddie’s thoughts again and agreed: _not ours_. It would rather see them gone.

That didn’t stop it from being choleric. It didn’t want to spend the day with Anne—as much as it liked her, it loved Eddie. And they hadn’t eaten in hours.

 **Hungry,** Venom complained.

“I can’t eat before surgery or I’ll die,” Eddie said, checking his phone again. “Anne will feed you.”

**I’m not a dog. Tell her to hurry.**

“You can hold out for another hour, baby.”

Venom spread itself through Eddie’s pectoral muscles, poised to engulf the offending tissue. **I could eat them for you,** it said. **Plenty of meat and fat. Nutrition for baby must be just as good nutrition for me.**   **Then we could stay home. Wouldn’t have to be apart.**

“It doesn’t work like that,” said Eddie. He stuck his phone in his pocket, and spread his fingers. “Come here.”

Venom flowed down and formed black fingers to intertwine with Eddie’s. Eddie squeezed lightly, bringing their hands to his chest and clasping them warmly there.

“Stop worrying,” he said. “It’s making both of us anxious. We’ll be okay. I won’t even be gone for a whole day.”

 **Even a minute is an eternity without you,** Venom said glumly. It knew how important this surgery was to Eddie, how long he’d been waiting for it. He didn’t have to say it—Venom  knew it was being selfish. It wrapped a few tendrils possessively around Eddie’s wrist.

“I’ll be better when it’s done,” said Eddie.

They were still and quiet for a long moment, then Venom slowly dissolved back into Eddie’s skin.   **Well,** it said, **you feed me better when you’re happy.**

“And I love you too, baby.”

Anne came for them seventeen minutes later, looking pretty and smart in a tailored coat. As she drove, she and Eddie went over what would happen when they reached the hospital, and Venom stopped listening. It paid close attention to Eddie’s body instead, wrapping around his heart and lungs and mimicking their movements. It wanted to be able to remember everything while it was stuck with Anne—a silly thought, sentimental, the sort of thing that Riot and Blue had always picked on. But Eddie was more than meat.

They passed the hospital’s sign, and Venom reluctantly gathered itself in the middle layer of Eddie’s skin, closer to Anne. Eddie was thanking her for taking Venom for the day.

“Anything to help,” she said. “I know how long you’ve been waiting for this.”

“Yeah, don’t make me think about how old I am,” said Eddie.

Anne flashed him an impish smile. “Then I guess I shouldn’t ask you what you want for your forty-sixth birthday?”

“Cut it out.”

Anne pulled into a parking space away from the tightly packed spaces closest to the hospital entrance.

“Ready, baby?” Eddie asked.

 **Yes,** Venom said unhappily. Anne and Eddie got out of the car.

They hugged, and Venom slipped discreetly from Eddie’s body into Anne’s. She shivered as it settled in, but her cells accepted the symbiosis easily. Venom had never known two perfect hosts at the same time before, and it thought the compatibility was just more proof that Anne belonged with them, but that subject had been dropped long ago.

“Good?” Eddie asked into her hair. She nodded, and he stepped back from them. “I guess I’ll see you later, then.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you while you get checked in?” Anne asked.

**Us!**

“No,” said Eddie, “I’ll be fine. Venom needs to eat, anyway.”

 **Hungry,** Venom begrudgingly agreed. It was disappointed with Anne’s breakfast: all fruits and grains that Venom didn’t care for. The nutrients were negligible, so it left the cells alone.

Eddie was taking backward steps away from them, towards the hospital. “I’ll pay you back for whatever Venom eats,” he said.

“Okay,” said Anne.

Venom twisted, longing to reach back to its love. Anne wrapped her arms around herself.

“Have fun,” she said.

**He won’t.**

“I won’t,” said Eddie, “but thanks for the sentiment.” He gave a little shrug, then shoved his hands in his pockets and turned his back on them, walking towards the hospital. Anne waited until he was inside and the doors had closed behind him before she got back in the car.

As she drove, Venom roamed silently under her skin, feeling out her physical and metaphysical nuances. She felt different. She wasn’t tired and scared. Anxious, a little worried, but not scared like last time. Her body wasn’t tense and ready for a fight, her hands were steady on the steering wheel.

Still, Venom waited until they were walking into the grocery store before it spoke again.

**It’s been a while, Anne.**

Anne jumped, then quickly tried to disguise it as a shiver and tugged her jacket tighter around her body. No one noticed.

 _Yes it has,_ Anne thought, carefully thinking through the syllables each word so that they wouldn’t get half-lost in the slipstream of her mind. _No funny business, okay?_

 **Okay,** said Venom, then reminded her: **Hungry.**

They made a beeline for the meat and seafood section. Anne didn’t browse—she glanced at a few of the labels, but got in line without thinking much about it. Her mind was on cow, unseasoned and as raw as she could get it. Venom wanted to follow the smell of fish. It nudged her, squeezing her bicep lightly.  

**Get the lobster. Get two of them. No, three. Four!**

She thought hard, _That’s too expensive._ She was better at hiding their conversations than Eddie.

**Buy them as a present.**

A worker asked Anne what she wanted, and she pointed to the chuck steak.

**Anne!**

“And two pounds of ground beef.”

Venom wanted to force her over to the lobster tank, but decided that causing a scene would upset her and that would only make the day without Eddie seem even longer than it already was. It settled heavily and unhappily along her spine as the worker wrapped up the beef.

“Anything else?” he asked.

“No, thank you,” said Anne. She took the beef and crossed over to the seafood counter. Venom dared to perk up.

**Get four.**

“I’ll take one lobster,” she told the woman behind the counter.

“Do you want to pick it out?” asked the woman.

**Which one is the biggest?**

“No, any one is fine.”

**You are so annoying.**

Anne crossed her arms and didn’t reply, but there was a little smirk on her face. Venom could feel it, all tight and smug. It liked Anne so very much.

* * *

 They drove home—to Anne’s home, not Eddie’s. Venom waited while she put the grocery bags on the kitchen counter and called for Mister Bellvedere, snapping her fingers until the cat came trotting around the corner, then stopped. He stared up at them, acutely aware of Venom’s presence. Then he arched his back for a scratch anyway, and Venom was pleased.

“Do I need to do anything to the meat?” Anne asked as Mister Bellvedere decided he’d had enough, and she straightened up.

 **No,** said Venom, **I don’t like it cooked.**

The memory of the forest surfaced, with a mixture of disgust from Anne and fondness from Venom.

 **It won’t be like that,** it said. Anne unpacked the grocery bag, laying out the packages of meat in a neat line on the counter. **No skull to crunch. No body left behind.**

“Thank you, I don’t want to think about it more than I already am,” said Anne. She took a step back, a little tense. “Go ahead.”

Venom enveloped her, and her train of thought faded to the background as they ate. The meat was acceptably fresh, and the lobster was pleasantly crunchy. They were nice, but not especially filling, not like a good, juicy brain… Venom licked a trace of thin blood off its chin, thinking of the man in the building across from Eddie’s, who was always yelling at his wife.

Anne made her presence known again then. Venom acquiesced.

It finished the meats, then dissolved again, and Anne stood still in her kitchen for a moment before she smoothed her hair back and started to clean up the butcher paper Venom had left behind.

Her thoughts wandered. She thought a lot about work; her upcoming court dates, the research she still needed to do and arguments she had to write. She thought about Dan, and the dinner they were supposed to have with his sister on Friday. Laundry, smog check, grocery shopping. None of it was interesting to Venom.

**You are so quiet, Anne. I'm getting bored.**

“I'm not used to talking to a disembodied voice,” said Anne.

Venom manifested over her shoulder and curled around to look her in the face. She shrieked.

“ _Please_ don’t do that,” she said.

“Eddie thinks I am adorable.”

“Well, I’m not Eddie.”

“No,” Venom agreed, “you aren’t.”

Anne gave it The Look.

“If you won’t talk to me, then at least turn on the television for me,” said Venom. “You have Netflix, don’t you? I have been watching _Shameless._ ”

“I have premium Hulu.”

“Well, I know Eddie’s password, anyway.”

“I have work to do,” Anne said, washing her hands. “The TV distracts me.”

“Bad idea to do lawyer work with me around,” said Venom, wrapping around Anne’s shoulders. “Eddie and I share a brain. You want him to see?”

“Nice try,” said Anne, “but you can keep anything you want to from Eddie.”

Venom gnashed its teeth once, then faded into her skin again. Anne was no fun to argue with—she was stubborn and level-headed, more melancholic than fast-talking, sanguine Eddie.  Arguing with Anne wouldn’t go anywhere. Venom settled along her spine again.

Anne poured herself a glass of almond milk and took a bag of assorted chocolate candies out of a cupboard. “Go ahead and sulk,” she said. She sat down at the dining table with her laptop and a stack of papers five inches thick. “I’m not changing my mind.”

They ate the whole bag of chocolates throughout the day, at a snail’s pace as Venom had to constantly remind Anne to unwrap another candy.

 **I’d do it myself but you would get mad,** it said, at least seven times. She stopped replying after the third time. It was even more boring after that. If Venom slept, it would have gladly, but all it could do was sit, trance-like, coiled around Anne’s bones and tissues until her cell phone chimed a message.

 **Time to get Eddie,** Venom said immediately. Anne closed her laptop and straightened all her papers back into a neat stack.

“Time to get Eddie,” she agreed.

* * *

 They were back in the hospital parking lot, and Anne was moving too slow. Venom raced back and forth across her shoulders as she straightened her jacket and locked the car.

**Hurry. I have to get to Eddie.**

“Calm down. You can manage any pain and prevent infection,” Anne said, “but that’s all, okay?”

 **Yes,** Venom said, impatient. Eddie was so close!

“No superhealing.”

 **I know!** Venom flowed down Anne’s back, into the muscles of her hips and legs. **Take me to Eddie, or I will do it myself!**

“Don’t talk to me like that,” Anne said sharply, even as she started walking towards the hospital. Her irritation was prickly, but Venom didn’t care. It pressed itself into the middle layers of her skin, eager to return to its love.

“Eddie wants to do this on his own,” Anne went on. “It's a pride thing.”

Venom scoffed. **Eddie will never have to do anything on his own ever again.**

The doors slid open, and there was Eddie, sitting in the lobby, looking half-asleep, holding a paper pharmacy bag in his lap and idly toying with his phone. Anne made a little noise of annoyance, and her pace quickened. Venom didn’t question her.

“They just sent you out here to sit, alone?” she demanded, as soon as she was close enough. Eddie looked up at her blearily. It was strange, wrong seeing him from the outside.

“Oh, hey,” he said. “Yeah, they needed the bed.”

“That’s irresponsible,” Anne muttered. She took Eddie’s hand and helped him to his feet, and Venom only barely resisted the urge to leap back to Eddie right then.

“Aw, there was a volunteer sitting with me for a little while,” said Eddie. “Nice kid. Don’t get all worked up on me, Annie. I’m fine.”

“I wish you’d stay overnight.”

“I don’t want to stay overnight.” He was still holding Anne’s hand, and he tugged on it, towards the hospital’s doors. “Come on, take us home.”

 **Yes,** Venom nearly shouted inside Anne’s head. She flinched. **I want to leave. Let’s go.**

“Okay,” she said. Eddie raised his eyebrows at her, and she gestured shortly at her head. “Come on.”

Eddie let go of her hand, and they went back out to the parking lot. Venom could hardly stand it—Eddie was so close, and yet they were still apart, and Anne _wasn’t walking fast enough!_

“He’s probably losing it in there, huh?” Eddie asked in a low voice.

“Oh, I’m _this_ close,” Anne said stiffly. Venom didn’t let up. They walked in silence for a few moments longer, and then Anne stopped between empty cars. “I’m parked in the next aisle. Take him.”

It was half Anne, half Venom who reached for Eddie's hands then, both eager for the transfer. The moment their fingers touched, Venom shot from Anne's skin back to Eddie's.

It felt _good._ Warm, familiar, perfect—there was a little bitterness from the medicines, a little discomfort from the tubes stuck in their chest, but Eddie was Eddie and Venom settled happily into him, vowing to never leave again.

Eddie groaned softly, rolling his shoulders as Venom filled him again. “Missed you, baby,” he said. Venom formed fingers to intertwine with Eddie’s, squeezing tightly.

“Feel better?” asked Anne.

“Yes,” said Eddie, in both their voices.

The drive home was quiet, as Eddie slept on and off. Anne had to gently shake him awake when they got back to the apartment.

“I’ll come by tomorrow after work to check on you,” she said, as Eddie carefully got out of the car. “Take care of him, okay?”

**You think I won’t? You think I need reminding? I will never let anything happen to Eddie, not as long as we are alive and—**

“He says okay,” said Eddie. “Thanks, Annie.”

“Good night, Eddie.”

It took all of Eddie’s energy to climb the stairs to their apartment, and he barely bothered to take off his jeans before crawling into bed. Venom curled softly in his shoulders.

“I’ll tell you about it in the morning,” Eddie mumbled. He tugged the blankets up to his chin. “‘M fucking exhausted.”

 **It’s okay,** said Venom. **I know. You feel better.**

“Yeah.”

Venom trailed tendrils down Eddie’s arm, holding his hand again.

**Spending the day with Anne was not terrible. She worked. I ate.**

Eddie just grunted. His eyes were closed, he was only half-listening. Venom sifted through what few memories of the day he had—waiting, waiting, medicating, sleeping, waiting some more. He’d been anxious for a long time, until the doctor finally got around to the surgery. Venom carefully kept its annoyance at that from Eddie.

 **You might ache in the morning,** it said. **Might not. There aren’t any nerves left here.** It permeated the pectoral muscles, oddly numb, then retreated again.

Eddie mumbled something incoherent.

**Missed you. Love you.**

Venom covered Eddie’s whole arm now, spreading over his chest and up his neck until he was covered from his jaw to his hips in Venom’s warm blackness. It covered the drains, too, taking care not to jostle them. Eddie relaxed into the embrace.

“Love you, too,” he said, almost clearly, and then he was asleep, and they were happy.


End file.
